Twitter users in India have lambasted the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government for their biased detainment of student activist Gulfisha Fatima, who appeared for her trial in a New Delhi court on Monday.
Journalist Rana Ayub posted a video of Fatima being escorted by the police at the court. Fatima was arrested last year in connection to the February 2020 New Delhi riots that saw mass communal violence erupt in the capital city of India.
Protestors had gathered in Jaffrabad to demonstrate peacefully against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019, which granted safe passage to religious communities, except Muslims into India. Clashes soon broke out between pro-CAA and anti-CAA protestors, which resulted in a bloodbath that went on for several days and killed 53 people.
A user from India said that in arresting Fatima, the Delhi Police had done the Indian government’s dirty work by using the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to silence dissent. He added that the youth would still resist and rise against BJP’s policies.
Journalist Zeba Warsi said that those who resisted the anti-CAA protestors and chanted in favor of shooting the traitors were not dealt with similarly.
Several users like Warsi pointed out that others who were complicit in violence during the New Delhi riots roamed freely. A user said the BJP government was using UAPA against students while other enemies of the state escaped scot free. He said that BJP leader Kapil Mishra who was involved in the Delhi riots was not taken in by authorities. He added that an activist from the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad student society, Komal Sharma, was also not booked for her role in the ruckus.
Zoya Rasul, an alumnus of the Jamia Milia Islamia University added that action was not taken against Hindutva leader Yati Narsnighan and those who incited violence against protestors as well. Rasul claimed that Fatima was charged discriminatorily because of her Muslim identity.
Several added one-liners in way of Fatima’s support.
All India Mahila Congress National Coordinator Sadaf Javed said, “More power to you, Gulfisha Fatima.”
Social worker Girish Arora refused to believe that Fatima’s body language was that of a criminal and hoped that justice would prevail.
Poet Angad Singh Khalsa said that anything was possible in the current ‘fascist’ regime.
Another user added that Fatima was only arrested for her faith and did not look the part of a rioter. He said that he had been following a social media account that showcased innocent Jews being targeted in Auschwitz. The user foreboded that if BJP was allowed to continue, India would soon witness its own Auschwitz.
An FIR was levelled against Fatima in April after she participated in the anti-CAA Jaffrabad sit in on February 22, 2020. She was charged on grounds of UAPA, an anti-terror legislation in India under which people who aided or abetted an unlawful activity would be charged with fines and possible imprisonment.
